Author's Note
I know you're probably wondering why I posted this story so soon right after the Welcome to Equestria story. The thing is this short story was an idea by Greg and I thought it could be fun. The trouble was I didn't want to post this before the other story because I didn't wanna through my schedule off. Then life happened for both me and Greg with writer's block and classes respectively and so delays ensued. So I figured to get this out before the year is over, I'd have the first chapter of the first story out then I'd post this one. Anyway, hope you understand and enjoy.
Oh and depending on when you're reading this;
Merry Christmas
STOP COPYING ME!
Tanzanite and Flare were not the closest of friends during their time in the academy as students. Flare, the blue pudgy dragon, was lazy when it comes to schoolwork and does always feel annoyed with it too; Tanzanite, the eggplant purple one, was as sluggish as him but more stern and responsible with given tasks. As time went on, their connection was improving, and have been hanging out with each other a few times. Even though they argue from time to time for whatever reason, they still get along really well.
One afternoon, both dragons were inside their dorm room together even though they weren’t roommates. Tanzanite was sitting on his chair reading a novel while slacking, and Flare was sitting on the bed beside him reading a comic book. The space was very quiet, not a single word was spoken. Things were getting awkward until both dragons said their words.
“So, what other plans do you have for today?” both dragons asked in sync. Their eyes widened in shock when they said the same sentence at the same time. “Eyyy! Jinx! Jinx again!” Both chuckled and stayed quiet for a short while before speaking again. “Seriously, what other plans… do you… have… for today?”
“Okay, that is awkward. And a little annoying like……… Dang! Dang it. Daaaaaaaaaaaang.” Both dragons stared at each other as they were quickly getting annoyed. “Okay, stop copying me.” Tanz and Flare tossed their books as they got into each other’s faces. “For real, stop copying me!”
“Yo… this is kinda freaking me out…”
They both froze in silence for a while contemplating the scenario they just experienced right now.
“Alright, you stop talking while I say something.” They stared at each other for a moment waiting for one of them to speak a word. “Come on… say something. No! You don’t talk, I will! NO, YOU! YOU! DON’T! TALK! UGH, DAMN IT!”
“Okay, seriously, what the f***?” Both of them were struggling to keep calm as they knew they needed to end this. “I got it, say the first thing that comes to your mind. Ready? One, two, three, BIG FAT EMBER! Wait, what!? She’s the freaking Dragon Lord, why in the world would you say that?”
“What the heck is going on!?”
Both dragons turned away from each other. Tanz rubbed the brim of his nose while Flare lay face first on his bunk into his pillow. After a minute or two the dragons both stood up to face each other. “Okay, it’s got to be over now…. S***!” both exclaimed.
“Okay, new plan. Find a random item and bring it back here. Got it? Got it.” The two left their dorm and after a short while, Flare returned with an apple he found in the lounge. He saw Tanz coming back… also carrying an apple. Both stared in bewilderment at what they had done.
“What!? How could you… Ah! Forget it!” Both tossed their apples to the side as they thought of another idea. “Okay, let’s try… drawing something instead.” Both went back in and grabbed pencils and paper from the desk and took a minute to draw a sketch that first came to mind.
After a few minutes, both showed off their pictures… both of which showed off Dragon Lord Ember being a literal big mouth. The two stared at each other to register what they drew. “Are you kidding me!? Why would you draw that? She’s going to kill us!” They decided it would be best to rip up and even burn what they had drawn.
“Alright, this is going way too far. You need to stop your stupid mimicking game, this is so infuriating! Seriously, cut that out! Enough with this bulls***! Stop copying me RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT NOW! STOP IT! UGGGHHH!!!”
“Woof woof! Even animal noises?! Agh!!!” Each dragon was running out of patience. “Meow! F***!!! You know what? I’m leaving!” Both stood up in anger and stormed away from each other, having enough of this annoying syncing game.
At the library, Emerald, Peridot, Ocellus, and Smolder were studying together. It is for the group project activity they were working on. As they work, they noticed Tanzanite coming in with a down and annoyed face sitting beside them.
“Hello, Tanz,” Ocellus greeted.
“Hi,” he greeted back with a disappointed tone, his claws leaning on his face, covering his eyes.
The girls felt concerned for him. “Are you alright?” Emerald asked. “You looked so down right now.”
“I’m sorry, girls,” he sighed, “Flare is bothering me.”
“What has he done this time?” Smolder rolled his eyes. “Knowing him, he does grumble a lot when it comes to work like this we’re doing right now.”
“Well, not that, it’s something I don’t think he was doing intentionally. We were both in sync, copying each other’s words and actions. Like, we said jinx like two times and it happened to both of us. It’s… kinda freaky.” He then frantically looked around feeling paranoid. “Y… you haven’t seen Discord, have you?”
“No, not for a while,” Peridot admitted. “The superhero storytelling thing was the last time we saw and met him. You’re with Sulcus, Pearl, and Pyther as one of the villains, remember?”
“Oh yeah, I remember that.” He lucidly recalled.
“Are you sure this ain’t a coincidence? It’s impossible to intentionally sync one’s actions and words.”
“If it was, I think someone must’ve aligned stars with a leprechaun for us to copy literally everything we were doing. Seriously though, imagine you and you were in sync for the whole day while copying every move you made and every word you speak.”
“That… does sound kind of creepy… and annoying too,” Ocellus commented.
“I could’ve agreed more,” Smolder added. “I’d be pissed too.”
Tanzanite sighed. “I’m hoping not to do that again.” He stood up and flew over to the nearest bookshelf and tried to pick out a book from the highest shelf to get his mind off his current predicament. Just as he tried to pull his chosen book, it felt like it was stuck.
“This feels like it’s being superglued,” he said to himself.
Tanz tried to pull it off the shelf, but it felt like the book was pulling back. On his fourth attempt, he noticed something from behind. Behind the book, he saw familiar blue eyes. When he peeked over the shelves, he could see Flare, also peeking like Tanz, on the other side also trying to pull off the same book, again doing the same he is doing. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” both dragons exclaimed in unison. “STILL?!”
“What’s going on here?” Emerald asked. She and the other three approached the boys who were immediately angry again.
“See what I mean? He keeps copying my every move!” Tanz and Flare exclaimed when they landed in front of them. “He can’t even stop for a MOMENT!” They glared at each, having enough of this issue. “GAH! That’s it!” Furious, Tanzanite and Flare sternly grasped their horns and left the library while yanking each other in pain.
Smolder, Ocellus, Emerald, and Peridot were in shock seeing what they witnessed. “Woah… He ain’t joking…” Smolder said to Ocellus.
“I can see that.”
“Should we help them?” Peridot asked with concern. “They appeared to be in pain.”
“We would,” Emerald replied, “but it’s best not to intervene. Just to be safe.”
Outside of the building at the buckball field, both stood at both ends of the open, staring intensely, had their fists clenched, and puffed smoke out of their noses. “I HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR STUPID NONSENSE GIMMICKS, BUDDY! IT’S EITHER ME THAT’S GOING TO STOP YOU OR YOU THAT’S GOING TO STOP YOURSELF! EAT FIST, B****!”
Immediately, they flapped their wings and charged toward each other with their battle cries. Once they made near contact, they began with a hard punch but ended up punching each other’s fists. Again, in sync. Then they went for a hard kick, and once again ended up hurting their toes. Then they continued to strangle each other’s necks and wrestled as tough as they could. As they tangle, they roll like a long carpet that gets unrolled.
They still kept battling with more synced punches and kicks. It was nonstop. After what felt like an hour, Flare and Tanzanite stood back up on their feet, breathing in and out repeatedly, facing each other once again.
“STOP…! COPYING…! ME!!!” At last, both let out a blast of fire which ended up with Flare getting hardly knocked toward the school’s wall, knocking him out.
“Flare?” Tanzanite gasped. The dragon only groaned with enough energy to give a thumbs-up before going limp. “Yeah, you’re gonna be fine. Whew! At least it’s over.”
“Tanz?” called a voice.
The purple dragon turned to see Sandbar and Gallus coming outside, seeing Flare lying unconscious.
“What the heck happened out here?” Gallus doubted.
“It’s complicated, you two might not believe what happened to both of us. We couldn’t stop copying each other for a long while, and it was grinding my gears, so we… had to end it somehow.”
“Uhh… Don’t you think that was a little extreme?” Sandbar asked.
“Trust me, we couldn’t stop, and it’s finally over! You’ve been here longer than I do, and you might have seen some weird things happening here, right?”
“Absolutely,” both the pony and griffon noted. “Eyyyy! Jinx! You owe me a can of soda.” Tanz could see this was happening again. “Okay, now you owe me two cans of… soda. Can you stop that? Bet you can’t keep up with this: She sells seashells down by the… barbershop!”
“Oh boy,” Tanzanite groaned.
“Can you stop copying me? Seriously, stop copying me! Imtalkingsofastthatyoucantkeepupwithwhatimsaying! What is going…?”
“I’m sorry guys!” Before the two could finish their synchronized sentence, Sandbar had a big ball of dirt thrown right into his face. This made him fall backward as Gallus glanced to see Tanz brushing dirt off of his claws with a small indent in the ground next to him.
“That was the right thing to do, Tanz,” Gallus commented.
“This is such a peculiar day for me.”
“You get used to it after a while.” Gallus helped Sandbar stand up and wipe the mud off of his face. “You okay, Sandy?”
“I’m okay,” he muttered, brushing off the dirt out of his face. “Man, that was freaking weird, am I right?”
“Exactly,” Gallus and Tanz agreed. Hearing that they’re in sync… again, their eyes widen, and face each other. “Weird things happen here in this school… often.” They both sighed with a facepalm. “I’ll get a bat.”